Tuesday 5 May 2009 17.31 EDT
First published on Tuesday 5 May 2009 17.31 EDT

A terrible error from the youngest player on the pitch set Manchester United on the way to victory last night, ­condemning Arsenal to another season without reward and the umpteenth reopening of the debate over Arsène Wenger's disinclination to recruit experienced players in his efforts to bring the European Cup to north London.

Kieran Gibbs, a 19-year-old Lambeth boy who began his career in the ­Wimbledon academy, slipped on the ­perfect surface at the Emirates in the eighth minute while trying to intercept Cristiano Ronaldo's cross and could only turn and watch as Park Ji-Sung took a touch just outside the Arsenal area before lifting his shot over the helpless Manuel Almunia. A midfield player by training, Gibbs played at left-back in the FA and Carling Cup sides this season and was drafted into the Premier League and Champions League line-ups six weeks ago when Gaël Clichy succumbed to a long-standing back problem.

Gibbs is an England Under-21 international of enormous promise, with the attributes of pace and tenacity, along with the malleability of youth, that Wenger so covets. What happened to him could have happened to many players required to brake and turn in order to execute what should have been the straightforward task of cutting out Ronaldo's pass. His inexperience will be held to account as Wenger's policies come under ­further examination, and he was removed at half-time.

If the first goal disconcerted ­Arsenal and their supporters, the second ­effectively ended the match as a contest. They had been given a mere three minutes to lick their wounds and ­summon reserves of resilience to fuel a counter-offensive when Ronaldo rose after being brought down by Robin van Persie to hit one of his remarkable 35-yard free-kicks past Almunia's left hand.

Once again an Arsenal error had opened the way for United to take an advantage. This time it was Cesc Fábregas, playing deeper than he had done in the first leg at Old Trafford, who misplaced a short pass straight to Ronaldo 15 yards inside his own half. Van Persie's foul was an attempt to clean up the mess, but it gave Ronaldo the chance to demonstrate his virtuosity on a night when, playing as a central striker, he seemed determined to show viewers throughout Europe the full range of his talent.

The symbol of the night was here. When Fábregas gave the ball away in his own half, his side conceded a goal. When Ronaldo did the same after 20 minutes deep in United's half, a wholly gratuitous and inaccurate flick prompting an Arsenal attack that ended in the award of a corner, he got away with it.

That second goal left Arsenal with the hopeless task of scoring a minimum of four goals on a night when Darren Fletcher was patrolling the central midfield and occasionally breaking forward like a ­reincarnation of Bryan Robson and Roy Keane rolled into one slender, fair-haired Scot. Until his expulsion, with 15 minutes to go, he could surely not have enjoyed so effective a night since he and Keane drove Patrick Vieira and Edu to distraction in another tumultuous semi-final, in the FA Cup at Villa Park in 2004, when Arsenal fancied themselves on the way to another cup and league double.

Arsenal's fans, often criticised for their lack of passion, could not be blamed last night. Wenger asked for noise, and the home supporters obliged with a decibel count that probably exceeds anything heard at the Emirates stadium to date, with the possible exception of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

As the match kicked off they were producing the sort of noise more commonly heard at Anfield, Galatasaray's Ali Sami Yen or Valencia's Mestalla. It was a ­tremendous response to an evening ­brimming with optimism, but all too soon the roars died in their throats as a double blow within 11 minutes set the corner of the stadium containing United's fans ablaze, with no need to rue their side's many missed chances at Old Trafford six days earlier.

Amazingly, only two members of ­Arsenal's beaten 2006 European Cup final starting line-up were in the team that kicked off last night, with only three ­others present of the 18-man squad of three years ago. Wenger's belief in his ability to bring young players to an early maturity, collectively and individually, has given Arsenal's fans many stirring occasions and much dream-like football, but after last night's catastrophe there will be no shortage of critics ready to remind him that he also owes a duty to the present.

The callowness and ineffectuality of Arsenal's midfield in the face of a single-minded United side reawakened doubts about the Frenchman's readiness to part with such players as Vieira, Gilberto Silva and Mathieu Flamini without securing suitable replacements. When he appeared to have found one a couple of years ago, in the shape of Lassana Diarra, he let him go without a struggle.

As United raked the field in the 61st minute with a counterattack that summed up the very best of their football under Sir Alex Ferguson and produced a second goal for Ronaldo, half of the home fans broke into a chant of "We love you Arsenal, we do." Many of the remainder headed for the exits, with half an hour to go.